Formula 1 teams shoudn’t be in charge of making the rules and deciding on the future direction of the sport according to three team bosses.
At present, representatives from Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, Williams and the next best team – this year Force India – can suggest and vote on rule changes along with FIA president Jean Todt and FOM boss Bernie Ecclestone.
But Red Bull’s Christian Horner, Force India’s Bob Fernley and Toro Rosso’s Franz Tost believe the group isn’t fit for purpose and should be scrapped, with Todt and Ecclestone given the sole power of exploring future rules.
“We have had 18 months to two years of Strategy Group work with nothing coming out of it,” commented Fernley.
“We need to look at a [new] system in better way. In days gone by, with Bernie and [former FIA president] Max [Mosley] in charge, we knew exactly where we were.
“I don’t think you should have teams making decisions on where Formula 1 is going. The teams should be told where Formula 1 is going.”
Horner agrees, adding that teams only have self interest at heart and they will therefore vote for rules which favour them, rather than those which are for the good of the sport.
“The sport is governed by the FIA and promoted by FOM and its those guys who need to get together and say: ‘What do we want F1 to be?’
“Bernie and Jean need to get together and say this is what we want the product to be and how it is to be governed and then give us the engine and see if we want to enter.
“Every team has its own agenda and it’s going to fight its own corner,” he added. “If you leave it the teams to try and agree a set of regulations, you’ll never get everyone on the same bit of paper.”
Tost concurred: “We are discussing too many things. We have too many useless meetings,” said the Austrian.
“It should be Bernie and Jean together who decide. They should not ask the teams because the teams will not come to an agreement.”
